This invention relates to internal combustion engines and more particularly to the braking mechanism employed in such engines.
Under regulations promulgated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a lawn mower, one use of such engines, must be equipped with a "deadman" device that will stop the lawn mower blade within three seconds after the operator has released his grip on the lawn mower handle. The device is usually a bar connected to the handle that is squeezed by the lawn mower operator which in turn pulls a cable connected to a brake releasing the brake from its lawn mower brake position.
When the brake is engaged (the brake being seated on the flywheel) the engine cannot operate. As the brake is released, the engine can be started and operated.
The purpose of the brake mechanism in a lawn mower application is to protect unwary people from injury when the operator of the lawn mower is not actually operating the lawn mower.
A drawback of the current art is that a cable can only be attached to the brake mechanism in one position. This limits the orientation in which an engine may be mounted on a lawn mower or other equipment requiring a "deadman" feature and causes great expense to the engine manufacturer to tailor an engine specifically for a customer.